The ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) and the governors
elected on its platform have said that the opposition will not be stifled as it
happened during the administration of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).
The governor of Zamfara State said this while fielding
questions from journalists on the outcome of the fifth regular joint meeting at
the APC National Secretariat in Abuja on Wednesday.
Asked to comment on the position of the APC on the Supreme
Court ruling that recognized Senator Ahmed Makarfi faction of the PDP, Yari
said, “As governors, we welcome the idea of democracy. The APC is not planning
in any way to put this country as a one-party system. We are not. We enjoy the
opposition when we were in opposition.
“From opposition, we become the ruling party. So, the
judgement given by the Supreme Court on the PDP will not shake the APC in any
way. We are happy for them. If they can put their heart together, we will have
a formidable party which we will work with and struggle with to win elections
in 2019, if they can. But the way the PDP is thinking that the APC is the one
working to suffer the opposition, we are not. We know what happened in the
past.”
He added, “Throughout my life, I have remained as opposition,
if not now. I have never been in the ruling party. I know what the PDP did to
our party. But we are not planning to do anything to other parties not to talk
of the PDP. We are happy about their
jubilation. They have every right to jubilate. But the crisis within the PDP is
not from us.
“Many of them are looking at the APC as if we create the PDP
problem. But we are not. And we can judge the 16 years of the PDP. Therefore,
we are firm as progressives. And we are bringing change to the country. If the APC
has got the opportunity the PDP got, when they got oil price at $115, $110 per
barrel, it would have been something different. But today, we are still
managing the country at the cost of $40 to a barrel.”
Yari attributed the APC defeat during the recent by-election
in Osun State to internal squabble among the party members. He said a committee
had been constituted to avoid future occurrence.
On the postponement of the APC convention and the governors’
earlier statement to meet the Acting President Yemi Osinbajo, the governor of
Zamfara State tacitly attributed the seeming delay to the illness of President
Muhammadu Buhari and the busy schedule of the acting President.
By Muideen Olaniyi
